Exploring the Political Debate over the COVID-19 Vaccination on Twitter: Emotions and Polarization in the Spanish Public Sphere

Curiel, Concha Pérez; García, Ricardo Domínguez; Molpeceres, Ana María Velasco

doi:10.3390/socsci12020085

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…The studied time period was established from the first known case of COVID-19 infection in Spain (31/01/2020) and extended for a whole year (31/01/2021). This choice was due to numerous studies confirming that the pandemic led to an exponential increase in disinformation and forced governments to take measures to address the so-called infodemic (Pérez-Dasilva et al, 2020;Salaverría et al, 2020;Pérez-Curiel et al, 2023). The sample universe consists of 1115 interventions that Spanish politicians made in the 65 plenary sessions that took place over a year.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disinformation in the Spanish public debate: an analysis of political speeches in the Congress of Deputies

Domínguez-García,

Velasco-Molpeceres,

Pérez-Curiel

2024

Front. Commun.

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Disinformation is one of the main challenges faced by modern democratic societies, becoming a crucial focus of study in political communication. Terms such as lie, falsehood, hoax, disinformation, or post-truth have become part of the daily language of the media, featured in numerous scientific studies, and entered political discourse. With the aim of delving into and determining the characteristic features of Spanish politicians' discourse on disinformation, a methodology of quantitative and qualitative content analysis is applied to a total of 1,115 interventions by members of the Congress of Deputies during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain. This period is chosen due to its high levels of disinformation and polarization. The results indicate that the issue of disinformation is a minor topic on the Spanish political agenda. Furthermore, metrics confirm a much higher use of terms such as lie, false, and hoax, to the detriment of other words like disinformation or post-truth. An impact of the pandemic on the main themes related to this phenomenon is also detected, with health and the economy being the primary frames identified. From an interpretative perspective, this is attributed to the tendency of Spanish politicians to use this issue as just one element within a polarizing and confrontational rhetoric, generally eschewing proactive debates on the measures needed to address disinformation.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disinformation in the Spanish public debate: an analysis of political speeches in the Congress of Deputies

Domínguez-García,

Velasco-Molpeceres,

Pérez-Curiel

2024

Front. Commun.

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“…The analysis of discourses surrounding hashtags on Twitter has been applied across various disciplines and for diverse purposes, such as sustainability discourses [46,47], political discourses [48,49] or health and nutrition discourses [45,50,51]. These studies have demonstrated that Twitter data are valuable for gaining insights into perspectives that are often challenging to access and underrepresented in empirical social research.…”

Section: Social Media As a Voice Amplifier For Food Poverty Experiencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring food poverty experiences in the German Twitter-Sphere

Bartelmeß,

Schönfeld,

Pfeffer

2024

BMC Public Health

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Background This study investigates the subjective perceptions of food poverty in Germany by analysing Twitter discourse using the German-language hashtag #IchBinArmutsbetroffen (#IamPovertyAffected) and examines the extent to which various dimensions of a multidimensional theoretical model of food poverty are represented in the discourse. Methods Employing a combination of computational social science and qualitative social research methods, the research identifies, and analyses tweets related to nutrition by applying a hierarchical dictionary search and qualitative content analysis. By examining the narratives and statements of individuals affected by food poverty, the study also investigates the interplay among different subdimensions of this phenomenon. Results The analysis of 1,112 tweets revealed that 57.96% focused on the material dimension and 42.04% on the social dimension of food poverty, suggesting a relatively balanced emphasis on material and social aspects of food poverty in the narratives of those affected. The findings reveal that tweets on material food poverty underscore economic challenges and resource scarcity for food. Social food poverty tweets demonstrate widespread deprivation in social participation, leading to isolation, exclusion, and social network loss. Overall, the results elucidate intricate interconnections among subdimensions and multidimensional manifestations of food poverty. Conclusions This study contributes methodologically by presenting an approach for extracting food-related textual social media data and empirically by providing novel insights into the perceptions and multifaceted manifestations of food poverty in Germany. The results can aid in a better understanding of the phenomenon of food poverty as it currently manifests in Germany, and in developing targeted social, health-promoting, and political measures that address more effectively the empirically evident multidimensionality of the phenomenon.

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“…Fake news consumption is based on being spread via social media (Baptista and Gradim 2020), which is especially successful when dealing with topics from local and national politics (Pérez-Curiel et al 2023). Local media promote a strong commitment between journalists and citizens, showing a great value to the community (Park 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disinformation and Local Media in the Iberian Context: How to Protect News Credibility

Fernández-Barrero,

Rivas-de-Roca,

Pérez-Curiel

2024

Journalism and Media

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Regional and local media outlets have much more credibility than news organizations placed at a national level, according to polls. In a context fueled by the spread of disinformation, audiences seem to trust close journalistic sources, while national and international leaders are seen as polarized. However, local journalism has few resources for fact checking. In this context, we explore some of the strategies developed by local news organizations to avoid the proliferation of fake news. This study uses a multiple-case study on four local media outlets from similar media systems (Spain and Portugal) as a qualitative research strategy. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with local journalists and secondary data analysis, we examine how these media outlets deal with fake news, shedding light on internal fact-checking resources and other original strategies applied. From our interviews, their journalists are aware of the problem, asking for more training; whereas their organizations have different approaches to the digital platforms where most of disinformation circulates. These findings contribute to the scant literature on the role of the local field in disinformation, arguing that the social mission of local journalism may be a guarantee against fake news if their journalists are trained.

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Exploring the Political Debate over the COVID-19 Vaccination on Twitter: Emotions and Polarization in the Spanish Public Sphere

Cited by 4 publications

References 42 publications

Disinformation in the Spanish public debate: an analysis of political speeches in the Congress of Deputies

Disinformation in the Spanish public debate: an analysis of political speeches in the Congress of Deputies

Exploring food poverty experiences in the German Twitter-Sphere

Disinformation and Local Media in the Iberian Context: How to Protect News Credibility

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